Last month, we had a board retreat to study and discuss the quintessential CADM. We agreed that our association’s strengths include the Tempo Awards and the Basic Course and in the course of our conversations we uncovered a very important piece of information: Our supportive local community is considered exceptional and is extremely important to our members.

Our program team announced our 2024-2015 program theme as Rising Expectations: Creating Better Customer Experience, and they are working on programs for the first quarter that will offer you tools to help you create better experiences for your customers.

For more than a decade, CADM offered a program to recognize the pro bono work of members, and to act as a clearinghouse between Chicago non-profits that needed direct marketing assistance and members willing to volunteer their help. This program, called Direct From The Heart (DFTH), also identified the need for affordable seminars for small non-profits. The full-day seminar, which in fact attracted non-profits of all sizes, became an important component of DFTH.

We are now in the process of revitalizing our community outreach efforts, and CBD Marketing and Diamond Marketing Solutions have offered their support to CADM to help us to pursue this initiative. We will have more information on this in our next adMarks. In the meantime, I encourage you to contact Glenda Sharp at [email protected] or 312-849-2236 for more information about participating.

There are many ways to engage with CADM – working with other members on committees is a dynamic way to learn and network – here are some areas where we could use your help:

adMarks – soliciting or creating content; proofreading

Basic Course – mentoring student participants (Feb - May 2015). Mentors need a minimum of five years of marketing experience.

Please contact Glenda ([email protected] or 312-849-2236) to sign up or for more information.

This year we are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Basic Course! And thanks to the leadership of the Basic Course chairs over the years, the content has evolved to stay contemporary and relevant. Social media certainly wasn’t on the curriculum in 1955!

This year’s course will take place on Thursday evenings from February through May at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center. Each week, students study a different aspect of the direct marketing engagement cycle—from messaging and customer behavior to implementation and analysis. The Course culminates in team presentations judged by industry leaders. To ensure that each student is offered the maximum learning opportunity, the size of the class is limited. Look for additional information on the course in December’s adMarks and on the website at cadm.org/events.